As the Los Angeles Times puts it, Bourdain has frequently "geeked out" about "The Wire" and welcomed any number of its actors onto his food-oriented travel show. David Simon has been on, as has Felicia "Snoop" Pearson. Bourdain has also done some writing for Simon's other HBO project, "Treme."

In the final Travel Channel episode of "No Reservations" that airs Nov. 5, the actor who played Omar, Michael K. Williams, shows Bourdain one of his favorite spots in New York for Caribbean, a place called Gloria's in Crown Heights.

And if that weren't enough, Omar archrival Marlo Stanfield (actor Jamie Hector) happens into the restaurant while they're chowing down.

"You get the oxtail," Williams tells Bourdain. "I'll get the curried goat. We'll get a mac and cheese, rice and peas, caillou (an African green)... I get a little bit of mine, I get a little bit of yours."

They sit down at a tiny table and dig in.

"It's been a long time since I've been in the Caribbean and had it good like this," Bourdain says.

Then, out of nowhere, in walks Marlo, or, uh, Hector. "What up baby!" Williams says, giving him a big hug.

Bourdain says to the camera that it's a "totally un-set-up coincidental moment." Hector just happened to have a hankering for Caribbean.

"You're in good hands," Hector tells Bourdain.

Despite his "Wire" love, Bourdain and Baltimore have something of a rocky history.

A few years ago he apologized -- sort of, but not really -- for ticking off some in the city by featuring pit beef and lake trout on his Baltimore episode instead of the city's more refined offerings.

"If you have watched any of the previous shows, it is clear that I am not coming to your town to do an impartial description, a compendium of the best-ofs," he told The Sun at the time. ""Crab cakes? My god, we have seen them before. Anyone who trudges through town has the obligatory crab cake. Pit beef and lake trout were two authentic, indigenous specialties."

Bourdain returns to the Hippodrome on Nov. 17, a stop on his Guts & Glory tour.